He sees a similarity between this year’s Bloomfield team and the one that defeated Ansonia in 2015 for a Class S state championship.

“This team is hungry,” he said. “And they don’t like to lose. I can tell you, this team is going to be hard to beat, and they don’t like to lose.”

They don’t lose often, either. Including an 8-2 campaign in 2017, the Warhawks are 31-3 since the start of the 2015 season. Ky’Juon Butler, once a 100-plus tackle linebacker, now a 1,000 yard-plus rusher, has been a varsity starter for the past four years.

Coming off a season in which he gained 1,714 rushing yards and scored 16 touchdowns at running back, Butler is part of a strong returning offense. He joins sophomore quarterback Daron Bryden (1,676 passing yards, 19 touchdowns as a freshman), junior wide receiver Anthony Simpson (646 receiving yards, 571 rushing yards and 16 total touchdowns) and starting junior center Moeth Gonzalez as returners.

“I think it’s going to help us,” Butler said of the offense. “I mean, we look good now. But when the game time comes, you don’t know. We’ve just got to wait and see.”

Bryden is coming off an unusually strong freshman campaign. He was a first-team member of the Legacy Northeast Football’s All-Offense team, for a 7-on-7 tournament which Bloomfield won, and has already been looked at by Division I schools.

Safe to say expectations are high headed into year two.

“He had a great summer, the kid works extremely hard,” Outlaw said. “His work ethic is phenomenal.”

He added, “You’re not going to outwork him.”

He’ll be throwing to Simpson — whom the team calls “AP.” According to Outlaw, Simpson has already been looked at by Boston College and Wake Forest. His sophomore year was strong, and he has the tools to improve on it as a junior.

“We’re expecting a huge year out of him,” Outlaw said. “Last year he was a sophomore, and he got double-covered a lot. But he’s gotten a lot stronger and a lot faster for this year. We feel like, if you don’t know him, you’re going to know him.”

Defensively, the Warhawks are tasked with replacing a pair of 100-tackle defenders — Christian Grant and Karl Powell. Kyle Barrow returns for his junior season after recording 69 tackles (18 for loss) as a sophomore.

Additionally, Butler, who was a 100-tackle linebacker as a freshman and sophomore, will return full time to the defense. Last season he focused more on the run game and less on defense. He said he’s conditioning more this summer in hopes to be a healthy full-time starter on both sides of the ball.

“I don’t really think I’ve got shoes to fill,” Butler said of losing the team’s two leading tacklers. “Because before they came, I was 13th and 12th in the state two years in a row. I had 100-plus tackles each year. They had to fill my shoes, I feel like.”